THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 331 



original capital, once relatively considerable, has now, in spite of these 

 additions, grown relatively inconsiderable where there are now numer- 

 ous universities having twenty times its private fund. It threatens now 

 to be insufficient for the varied activities it has undertaken and is pur- 

 suing in every direction, among these the support of the higher knowl- 

 edge by aiding investigators everywhere, which it does by providing 

 apparatus for able investigators for their experiments, etc. Investiga- 

 tions in various countries have been stimulated by grants from the 

 fund. It has been the past, as it is the present, policy of the institu- 

 tion to aid as freely as its means allowed, either by the grant of 

 funds or the manufacture of special apparatus, novel investigations 

 which have not always at the moment seemed of practical value to 

 ethers, but which subsequently have in many instances justified its dis- 

 crimination in their favor and have proved of great importance. 



The growth of the institution has been great, but it has been more 

 in activity than in mere bigness. The corner-stone was laid fifty years 

 ago. In 1852 the entire staff, including even laborers, was twelve. In 

 1901 the institution and the bureaus under it employed sixty-four men 

 of science and 277 other persons. These men of science in the institu- 

 tion represent very nearly all the general branches, and even the 

 specialties to some extent of the natural and physical sciences, besides 

 history and the learning of the ancients; and it may perhaps be said that 

 the income of the institution (which, relatively to others, is not one 

 tenth in 1901 what is was in 1851) has been forced to make good, by 

 harder effort on the part of the few, what is done elsewhere in the gov- 

 ernment service by many. 



The private income of the Smithsonian Institution is not quite 

 $60,000, but it controls the disbursement of about $500,000 per annum 

 appropriated by the government for the bureaus under its charge. 



Certain other functions difficult to describe are still of prime im- 

 portance. The Smithsonian is called on by the government to advise 

 in many matters of science, more especially when these have an inter- 

 national aspect. Its help and advice are sought by many thousands of 

 persons every year, learned societies, college professors, journalists, and 

 magazine editors, and thousands of private individuals, seeking informa- 

 tion, which is furnished whenever it can be done without too serious a 

 drain, though naturally a percentage of the requests is unreasonable. 

 It has cooperated with scientific societies of national scope, like the 

 xAjnerican Historical Association, and has stimulated the growth of a 

 number of the Washington scientific societies, and it may be said to teem 

 with other activities. 



The regents control the policy of the institution, and the secretary 

 is their executive officer. Since the beginning the regents have been 

 selected from among the most distinguished men in public life and 



